A fun (!?) weekend

What would you have thought, had you seen the following posted on April
1st?

A low time pilot (we'll call him Alpha Omega) launches with a dozen
other pilots in the first day of the group's annual contest series. AO
has very little, if any, x/c experience, and only recently bought the
glider. The weather is iffy and a 2.5 hour TAT is called. Top of the
lift about 5500 - 6000' (MSL) over desert terrain. While most of the
group is in the first turn area to the SE around 3pm, a radio call
comes in. AO has landed out and is calling in his coordinates for relay
to the gliderport so they can come get him.

The regulars return home late in the afternoon after a tough task to a
gliderport busy with the overflow traffic caused by the unexpected
closing of the other commercial gliderport on the other side of town.
The Grobs are going up and down as fast as the towplanes can haul them.
The staff is going crazy keeping up with it all and AO is sitting out
in the desert nearly forgotten, far out of range of any cell tower.

The regulers have his coordinates though and try to figure out why he
was 60 degrees off course track, in the middle of nowhere with no safe
places to land, and why his tow vehicle is locked up and the keys left
in an office whose staff is on the ramp snagging tow ropes. Eventually
we find someone, we'll call him IR (Intrepid Retriever), who can go get
AO; fortunately IR has many years of experience with the longest and
gnarliest of retrieves. With a GPS programmed to the glider's location,
IR heads out around 6pm.

YT (that would be yours truly) returns home to his girls, one of whom
is the CM for a major Regional contest coming up at the gliderport
whose doors were unceremoniously slammed closed that morning. It is
tough news; what to do?; worry about that after the w/e; the group had
two landouts today and lucky not to have four or five including YT. Off
to bed. Tomorrow is the second contest day.

Around 10pm, IR, after a wrong turn that costs several hours, hooks up
with AO. The glider has minor damage, but the trailer has literally
buckled in half on the bad dirt roads and is now a pile of aluminum
scrap. AO elects to stay with the glider overnight while IR drives home
to get some rest, to return the next morning. His head hits the pillow
at 1:30am and up 3 hours later to find AO again, with another trailer.

Meanwhile, around 11pm, emergency vehicles and fire trucks swarm the
contest gliderport. AO has contacted an airliner on the radio during
the day, and alleged ELT signals are being allegedly responded to. The
group's CD for the weekend, who is camping on the field, comes out and
informs them that the glider pilot landed safely, his location is
known, and there will only be an emergency if his comrades can't find
him the next morning. A half hour later, YT's phone rings; it's the
FAA. But he doesn't hear it, as he's fast asleep.

Sunday morning the group's president calls YT. The FAA, CAP, AF S&R
have all been up all night looking for AO. Hooboy. YT races back to the
gliderport. IR has already arrived and departed with the CD, pulling
IR's trailer. They return a few hours later, with IR's trailer missing
tailgate and rails, and AO's glider duct taped inside.

And so ends AO's first x/c effort, which YT understands was done
without navigation equipment. Will it be his last?

Not an April Fool's joke, but one very interesting weekend.

~ted/2NO

p.s. Sunday's weather is even worse. Only one pilots starts the MAT and
wins the day ... IR. The others were happy to see him bag 1000 points;
for all his work he deserved 2000!